Beware pretty much nailed it in his deconstruction of RiFF RaFF’s appeal. The charismatic, if nonsensical, Texas artist leans heavily on his high-wattage charisma to get by. However, a good song is a good song and “Lava Glaciers” is damn good.

Featuring psychedelic production by Harry Fraud and a guest verse from Childish Gambino, RiFF riffs on everything from bi curious mermaids to David Hasselhoff’s hair. Gambino, in typical emo fashion, comes in like the pop quiz to Jody Highroller’s impromptu pizza party, but packs in some much needed substance while being sort of a downer.

you stupid fucks listened to trinidad james and now fuck with bi curious young thug who are most of yall to say shit about the purity of hip hop? and yeah ill go on recordd to say this guy raps circles round trinidad james. trinidad james makes riff raff look like jay electronica.

Nah, petey. Childish Gambino is literally as “questionable” as my rap tastes get. I ain’t fuck with Trinidad. I don’t fuck with Young Thug. And I ain’t fucking with Riff Raff either. I’m not gonna sit here and be one of those “real hip-hop” guys, but I know trash when I hear it.

I know we spend a lot of time on the site talking about the state of hip-hop and parsing through different arguments, but this one was just very simple for me. I saw the song and loved the title, was curious about the pairing with Gambino, and love Harry Fraud. I thought I might like the song, and I really did. Sometimes songs are good. Sometimes they’re bad. This one’s good. *shrugs*